Friday, October 10, 2008
Law and Order Lawsuit: A Manually Stimulating Peacock
Posted by PJ Tobia on Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 12:10 PM
By now you all know about the bizarre lawsuit that the Scene and I are facing regarding this story about a stripper named Michelle Peacock who was arrested for offering to "manually stimulate" undercover Metro cops last year at Deja Vu strip club.
We probably shouldn’t comment here, except to point out this link to a legal blog that has an interesting take on the matter. They argue that because our reporting was based on public documents, something called the “fair report” privilege applies, and we’re in the clear. Here’s a snippet:
The “fair report” privilege does not extend to a report of a judicial proceeding that includes “any defamatory comments or observations.” The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled last year that the privilege did not apply to a TV news report which included information from anonymous sources and a private conversation with a police officer. Lewis v. Newschannel 5 Network, 238 S.W.3d 270. But in commenting on Peacock's alleged mid-afternoon handjobs, The Nashville Scene didn't say anything that was not in the police reports. So the privilege clearly applies.See you in court!
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